Bell Microproducts' Storage Business Continues to Take Shape

Fresh off a profitable quarter that beat Wall Street estimates, Bell Micro continues to add new vendor lines for its storage-focused business.

The distributor currently has plans to sell automated tape products from Storage Technologies (StorageTek), IBM-branded media from Imation and CD storage systems from ProjectLab.

"Bell Micro is all about its storage. We're always looking at defining engagements in current technology and calling the shots on future technologies," said Phil Roussey, executive vice president of enterprise distribution at Bell Micro. "Over the past decade, thanks to the need for all this data, all of a sudden what the world needs is storage. The growth of data doesn't know there's a recession going on."

Bell Micro previously sold StorageTek's D-Series disk subsystems and storage networking products. Under the new agreement, the distributor will also sell StorageTek's entry-level L-Series tape automation products, the company said.

"As time went on, it became obvious that StorageTek's tape products were an integral part of their branding," said Roussey. "We were running on one leg with the disks. This puts us on a level playing field with current StorageTek distributors [GE Access, Avnet Hall-Mark and Tech Data."

The ability to buy StorageTek tape drives through Bell Micro will make it easier to service customers, said Jim Shaffer, president and owner

of Blue Rock Storage, a San Diego-based solution provider. "StorageTek has a very good, very reliable high-end line with the L series," Shaffer said. "We make a lot of outbound calls here, and when we run across people with StorageTek, they're loyal [to that vendor."

Meanwhile, Bell Micro is also distributing IBM LTO Ultrium and IBM TotalStorage Enterprise 3590 cartridges. "Bell Micro has had a significant relationship with IBM for a number of years, but [having the LTO is unique for us," Roussey said.

The ProjectLab CD storage unit is "the most innovative item since the Zip drive came out in 1995," said Dennis Bilodeau, vice president of computer products marketing at Bell Micro.

The device connects to a PC through a USB or a serial connection and houses 100 CDs or DVDs. The discs are indexed and accessible by searching for a particular file. The carousel finds the correct disc and ejects it for the user. The device cannot read or write to the disc, but that function will appear in a future release, Bilodeau said.

"If you spend a lot of time looking through CDs for a particular file or picture, you need this product," he said.